Number of patients on waiting lists is rocketing

ONE in seven patients who need hospital treatment has already spent more than a year on the waiting list.

At the end of February, there were 8,767 people who had already waited more than a year to see a consultant at University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Trust following a GP referral, figures show.

The trust runs hospitals including Queen’s Hospital in Burton and Royal Derby in the city.

That was 14.4 per cent of the 60,992 people on the waiting list. The impact of the pandemic means waits for treatment continue to soar.

The number waiting more than a year at the trust has jumped 32.3 per cent in a month, from 6,629 people waiting that long at the end of January. In February 2020 before the first lockdown began - no one had been waiting that long.

Across England, the number waiting more than a year for hospital treatment has rocketed to 387,885 at the end of February - or one in 12 people on the waiting list. Treating Covid patients has meant that many routine operations have had to be delayed.

Numbers have increased by more than a quarter in a month, from 304,044 in January.

Dr David Wrigley, British Medical Association council deputy chairman, said: “Today’s statistics are a stark reminder that, despite falling Covid-19 infection rates and the progress of the vaccination campaign, the health service remains in an incredibly precarious state.

“With the waiting list for treatment reaching another recordhigh, almost 388,000 people have waited for longer than a year for routine operations in England – a staggering 240-fold increase from 12 months ago. Behind each of these shocking figures are people – people facing months of pain and anguish as they wait for vital treatment.

“Doctors want so desperately to provide care to patients, and it distresses them to see so many people not getting the care they need. Meanwhile, staff are exhausted after spending a year battling the pandemic on the front line.”

Gavin Boyle, chief executive at the Derby and Burton trust, said it had been able to maintain a large part of its emergency and urgent service during the pandemic, However, it had done relatively little routine activity such as planned operations.

This meant it has a backlog of patients waiting for routine procedures. He said: “I have been involved recently in a number of conversations with our clinical leaders about our plan to tackle this backlog.”